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Friday, December 21, 2012

Snowflakes for Sandy Hill

I taught elementary Art for 10 years. Probably the best job on earth.

There were the times when a child would raise his hand mid-lecture to show me his brand new sneakers. Or tell me about her new puppy. Or the cupcake that Mom had put in the lunch box. It was hard not to smile at these interruptions.

Once I had my back to the class trying to clean a particularly messy palette when I heard a noise behind me that sounded like a dove's coo. It got louder. I turned around to see what was going on when one of the children said "Look! It's snow!!!!!" Paintings were abandoned as we went to the window to watch.

After Christmas all the art sets came in so I could admire them and sometimes explain. The proud new owners were soooo excited.

The parents being dragged around the school to look at the "student gallery" where artwork from each of my students would be displayed during open houses.

Always joyful, always smiles.

Maybe that's why I'm having such a hard time wrapping my head around the senseless tragedy. I've been trying to come up with something I can DO to help. This is what I've found so far:

***Commit 26 random acts of kindness.

***The Sandy Hook Elementary School has suggested that people wishing to
make a donation can forward it to the Sandy Hook School Support Fund at https://newtown.uwwesternct.org.

***The U.S. Postal Service has created a special postal address for this
school community. You can forward mail and messages to P.O. Box 3700,
Newtown, CT 06470.

or

***Finally, the Connecticut PTSA
posted resources and tips on its site. For example, it came up with a
plan to have students make snowflakes for Sandy Hook. If you want to run
this as a student project at your school, you can send the snowflakes
to the Connecticut PTSA at 60 Connolly Parkway, Building 12, Suite 103,
Hamden, CT 06514, by Jan. 12, 2013.

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My Art

This artwork has been shown in various venues, the most recent of which are listed below, and are in numerous private collections including those of Richard Castellane, noted gallery owner and Edwin Vollmer.

Upcoming art shows:

Everson Museum 60/60
Friday June 17 at the Everson Museum in Syracuse, NY